UK History 2

DESCENDANT FAMILY MEMBERS OF JOHN i WILKINSON & JANE MACKMILLAN

THROUGH JOHN ii WILKINSON (1826-1880) & ELIZABETH PEARS (1830-1869)

Their Children by Date of Birth

• • • • • • • • Robert Wilkinson (1854)

              • Jane Wilkinson (1855)

              • Job Wilkinson (1857)

              • Elizabeth Wilkinson (1858)

              • Mary Wilkinson (1859)

              • John iii Wilkinson (1861)

              • Margaret Wilkinson (1866)

MARGARET (MAGGIE) WILKINSON  (1866-1909)  (My great grandmother)

MAGGIE was born at Greendyke Allendale in 1866 & was the youngest child of John ii Wilkinson & Elizabeth Pears. All her siblings were also born at Greendyke including her closest brother John iii who was five years older. When MAGGIE was about 18 months old her whole family moved from Greendyke to 'The Dykes' near Coanwood, just outside Haltwhistle in Northumberland. This was close to where her father's brother Cain & his family lived. A few years later the family moved again, this time to 'Brownside' in Leadgate near to Alston across the County border in Cumberland. MAGGIE's mother had passed away in 1869 while the family were at Coanwood and her father John ii died at Brownside in 1880 when MAGGIE was only 14 years old. She was recorded on the 1881 Census at Melkridge as a visitor to the Waugh household while the rest of the family were still at Brownside with her eldest brother Robert now as the Head. The family remained at Brownside for about the next ten years where brothers Robert, Job & John iii worked as farmers/miners. Her sister Jane was in service at nearby 'Bayles' with Elizabeth similarly employed while Mary remained as housekeeper at Brownside.

MAGGIE's brother John iii married Agnes Thompson,daughter of Daniel Thompson and MAGGIE was a witness at the wedding held in Alston in 1884. Like her sisters MAGGIE went into domestic service & without the influence of her parents had a son born out of wedlock in 1887. She named him JOHN iv ALBERT WILKINSON  (my grandfather) and he was baptised at the Alston Primitive Methodist Chapel located on the Nenthead Road. The chapel is now a private house but an inscription on a door lintol at the rear reveals it's former use.

As a single mother MAGGIE could not easily look after JOHN iv ALBERT and so her brother John iii & Agnes adopted him as their son & sadly never had any natural children of their own. John iii, Agnes and JOHN iv ALBERT moved to Tyneside about 1890 where work was more readily available for everyone. They lived initially at Benwell in the west end of Newcastle & then settled slightly further west at 'Bells Close' with MAGGIE reputedly also living nearby. MAGGIE supposedly had further children which I have yet to investigate together with details of her later life.

UPDATE :- Maggie had a daughter Elizabeth J. Wilkinson born in Alston in 1889 & a son Robert William Wilkinson born in Hexham district in1893. She married Robert Brooks in Hexham district in 1895 & these children took up her husbands surname. Robert was a coal miner born in Brancepeth but moved to different collieries over his lifetime with Maggie and their other children. Robert, 1895 in Hexham district, Joseph, 1896 in Plashetts, Jacob,1897 in Plashetts, Mary Agnes, 1899 at Bells Close, David Job, 1906 at Bells Close and Margaret, 1908 at Bells Close. Maggie and Robert Brooks were living at Bells Close near to her brother John iii Wilkinson & his wife Agnes when she died in1909. Her youngest child Margaret was then about 6 months old and with Robert's agreement was adopted by John iii & Agnes. Robert & the Brooks family moved on & he died in Shilbottle in 1949. Margaret married John Gilbert Muir Teasdale in 1930 and  settled in Garrigill near Alston & not far from Brownside & she died in Haydon Bridge in 1990.

JOHN iv ALBERT WILKINSON (1887-1950)  (My grandfather)

John iii Wilkinson, his wife Agnes and the young JOHN iv ALBERT were living at Victoria Terrace, Benwell in 1891 & then at Swinburne Terrace, Bells Close in 1901. The finally settled at Carrs Cottages, Bells Close which were simple dwellings erected by the owner of the adjacent Carrs Brickworks. The brickworks & tile sheds were on the north side of the river Tyne between the villages of Lemington and Scotswood close to the Montague Coal mine. John iii worked as a miner & horseman while JOHN iv ALBERT worked as brickmaker for the Carr family. 

JOHN iv ALBERT saw active service in the Army during the First World War and while posted abroad he received a schrapnel wound to his foot causing him to be invalided out in 1917.

He received a small pension from the Army & after the war ended & took up lighter indoor work at Vickers Armstrong's engineering and armaments factory at Scotswood.